The Coming Woman Reviewed By Valerie Porter of Bookpleasures.com

Valerie Porter

Reviewer
Valerie Porter: Valerie is a freelance magazine writer and co-author
of 5 books. She has also been a freelance book reviewer for a weekly
Los Angeles newspaper and has written her own book blog.

As
election 2016 buzz begins, once again the controversial question is:
Will Hillary Clinton run for, and perhaps be elected as, the first
female President of the United States?

But
more than 140 years before Hillary, in the 1870’s, there was a
woman who ran not once but four times for President – even before
women had the right to vote. That brave yet little-remembered woman
was Victoria Woodhull.

Author
Karen J. Hicks has written a novel based on the infamous feminist’s
life, a cleverly entertaining (and presumably fact-based) way to tell
Ms. Woodhull’s story. Historical figures such as President Ulysses
S. Grant, religious figure Henry Ward Beecher, suffragist Susan B.
Anthony, financial tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt and statesman
Frederick Douglass are brought to life as prime “characters” in
the novel.

Readers
first encounter Wall Street businesswoman Victoria and her sister
Tennie in 1870. She’s launched her first bid for candidacy and
wants to celebrate with Tennie at famed Delmonico’s Restaurant. But
the two are turned away because it’s after 6 p.m. and women aren’t
allowed to dine unaccompanied by a man. This is but one of the laws
she vows to change if elected.

Victoria
is quite racy (and therefore highly controversial) by 1870’s
standards. She is married but advocates free love, and believes
strongly in the spirit world and the advice it can offer, patterning
herself after President Abraham Lincoln in that respect. She shares
these beliefs during the many speeches she gives, and is at first
befriended by fellow suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton for her staunch belief in women’s rights.

She
helps form the Equal Rights Party and argues before Congress that
women already have the right to vote according to wording in the
Constitution. It’s not an easy journey for Victoria, and readers
will be rooting for her all the way, especially during her bouts in
jail for exposing the hypocrisy of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher among
her many “crimes.”

It
would take until 1920 before the 19th Amendment finally gave women
the official voting rights Victoria had long campaigned for.

Perhaps
the only flaws in the book are the repeated phrases that at first
seem to reflect the time period (“teetotally” is often used by
Susan B. Anthony and others, and “my god” seems to be the first
exclamation that sister Tennie often resorts to). It’s clever a few
times, but a bit exhausting after that.

Otherwise,
author Hicks masterfully writes a story that is not only fascinating
from a literary standpoint, but it also uncovers a little-known and
important part of American history.